Food Find: Japanese-style Curry Bread

When Harold Fields is not cooking as sous-chef at the Space Needle’s SkyCity, you might find him grilling delicious chicken skewers at pop-ups around town, including at Sake Nomi, a shop in Pioneer Square. Fields started Umami Kushi (umamikushi.com), a yakitori catering company, five years ago after a life-changing trip to Japan.

About a year and a half ago, he added a scrumptious, traditional Japanese-style curry bread to his repertoire. The savory, fried, doughnut-like bread is light and fluffy on the inside, filled with Japanese beef curry (milder in flavor and thicker than Indian curry) and unapologetically crunchy—panko, people, panko—on the outside. Yes, insane. Especially at $5 a piece.

You’ll find the buns Friday mornings at Cafe Avole (in Brighton, just north of Rainier Beach) and Empire Espresso (Columbia City), and Saturday mornings at Tougo Coffee Co. (Capitol Hill). Served alongside is his thick house-made yuzu kosho sauce, a blend of shishito and serrano peppers and fresh yuzu juice, available at Cone & Steiner General (Capitol Hill) and other markets; try it atop chicken or swirled into yogurt. Fields is working on a thin, pourable version of the sauce we think will give Sriracha some serious competition.